


A Simple Stone

by why_me_why_not



Category: Havemercy Series - Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 09:33:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29433918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/why_me_why_not/pseuds/why_me_why_not
Summary: The trip back to the country doesn't exactly go as Alcibiades planned.
Relationships: Alcibiades/Caius Greylace
Kudos: 1





	A Simple Stone

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the cliche_bingo prompt of soulbonding. Originally posted August 24 2009. Beta'd by gelsey and de.

After two long weeks in Thremedon – which were a result of fulfilling my duties to th'Esar and not of Greylace's ridiculous notion that I needed a new wardrobe because of all the weight I'd lost during our Ke-Han imprisonment, no matter what Josette and her Ke-Han plaything thought – I was more than ready to just escape to the country, see for myself that Yana was fine, and spend the next few months forgetting all about wars and Talents and stubborn, infuriating, not-charming-at-all little Magicians with mismatched eyes. The sentiment was, of course, ruined by the fact that a certain Magician insisted upon coming along. 

"My dear, you can't expect me to stay behind and miss the chance to meet your dear Yana! Not after all we've been through! And I've already had the finest tailor in Thremedon design me a trunk's worth of the finest country fashions. Certainly you don't think I did that for fun!" 

Honestly, I had yet to reason out why Caius did anything. 

I agreed to let him travel with me just to shut him up, and I pointedly ignored the knowing looks Margrave Royston kept sending in my direction while we prepared for our journey out of the capital. He had always been quite full of himself, but even more so since the end of the war. Or perhaps just since he'd brought his child bride farm boy back from his own exile.

Less than two days away from the city, Caius was already making my life difficult. He talked incessantly, which I didn't think I'd ever get used to, and when we stopped at the inn for the night, he went about ordering my dinner as if he had the right. 

"It wouldn't do to have Yana think I've been letting you starve, and you're already looking a little peaked, poor dear."

I could hardly wait to get home, where I could lock myself in my room and let him go about bothering others with his presence. He and Yana could spend a few days sharing ridiculously embarrassing stories about me, which I was quite certain would delight them both, and then he'd be headed back to the people and the excitement of the city, now that he was no longer exiled.

Caius also insisted on exiting the carriage each time we stopped to water the horses. One would think he had had enough exciting and dangerous adventures to last both our lifetimes, but apparently not.

"Sir.” My driver was at the carriage door, and I knew before he continued that Caius had again caused some sort of trouble. 

“What did he do now?” I asked with a sigh, trying to figure out how much time this was going to cost us. I’d hoped to be home before sundown, and it was already nearing midday. 

“He walked upstream a ways, but he has yet to return and he’s not answering our calls. Would you like one of us to go search for him?”

“That won’t be necessary.” I gathered my robes around me and stepped down from the carriage, stretching the muscles that hadn’t been used for a while. “I’ll go after him.” 

My driver pointed out the direction Caius had gone and I set off, stepping over rocks and a fallen tree and wondering how much Caius was going to complain when we got back to the carriage. He never thought about getting dirty while it was happening, but he was never quiet about it afterward. 

“Greylace!” There was a bend in the path, leading away from the river and along a wall of rock. 

There was a hollow opening in the rock face just ahead, and I stepped carefully inside. The air was cool and heavy, and there was something strange about the cave. It started out as just a feeling, but when I called for Caius again, the air returned no echo. Definitely strange. 

“Oh, Alcibiades! You came looking for me!” I noticed Caius’s voice didn’t echo either, and there was no sound coming in from outside. Strangling the little devil could wait until we were back outside. The more time I spent in this cave, the more ominous it felt.

“You’re making us late. Come on.” 

“I can’t. My foot is stuck.” 

Was this another one of his damsel-in-distress type tricks? I couldn’t be certain until I stepped forward for a closer look. His foot was indeed wedged between two parts of the rock. I grumbled about troublemaking little Magicians as I knelt down to free his foot. His ankle was bruised and starting to swell; there was no way he was walking on it. Resigning myself to being mocked by my traveling companions, if only behind my back, I stood up and scooped Caius up like a bride. He weighed less than a sack of rice, even with his ridiculously excessive clothing, and he settled against me far too comfortably. 

Anyone else would have at least apologized for the inconvenience, but I wasn’t expecting it from Caius. 

“Wait, I want this stone.” 

The object he was reaching for was smooth and round and very much like a stone, but the light around it was possessed with a shimmering quality. It wasn’t an ordinary stone.

"Caius, stop!" I reached for his hand, both of us touching the stone at the same time. There was a bright flash of light and I could feel _something_ that was best described like a string tugging at my Talent before I started to slip to the ground. Caius turned his hand so his fingers were intertwined with mine, the stone pressed between our palms, and I'm sure his recollection would be that it was _most romantic_ that I made sure to let him fall mostly on top of me, but it wasn't a conscious decision.

There was another annoyingly bright light and a buzzing sound around my head when I woke up, but what was underneath me was softer than the ground. I opened my eyes and saw a dragonfly whizz past my face. There were no dragonflies in the cave. There were no dragonflies in Thremedon. The only place I knew of with dragon flies…

“Finally! You worried me near to death!” Yana. 

“M’sorry,” I said, struggling to sit up. 

“Whoa, easy!” Someone rushed to my bedside in an instant, helping me sit up. It took me a long moment to realize that it was Margrave Royston. 

Looking past Yana, I saw Caius laying in a bed a couple lengths away. The color of the sheets clashed horribly with the nightshirt he was wearing. He was going to raise quite a fuss when he woke up. I didn’t want to admit that I would prefer him complaining to lying still as death. 

On the other side of the room was Royston’s Hal, and another young man I recognized as a scholar that had been hanging around the Dragon Corps. 

_He’s the brother of one of them, the impetuous one they call Rook. Caused a bit of trouble before the war was over, about the same time Margrave Royston was exiled._

I shook my head, wondering at the sudden thought. It was knowledge that wasn’t mine. It was the type of idle gossip that Caius was always quite proud of being privy to.

_Of course I’m proud of it. Gossip is one of the easiest forms of intelligence gathering, my dear._

This time I recognized the voice as Caius. I wondered if I had hit my head, caused some type of damage to myself. I certainly didn’t want to spend the rest of my days with his thoughts intermingled with mine. It was bad enough I had to deal with him for the next few weeks. 

_Now, now, Alcibiades. Don’t be like that. Think of how_ delightful _it will be to carry on conversations without anyone else ever knowing. It’s almost a shame the war is over; we could be invaluable as spies._

“Why isn’t he awake?” I asked, gesturing towards Caius. The slight movement made me feel a little dizzy and a lot nauseous, but I fought down the feeling. 

“We don’t know,” the scholar said. “That’s why we’re here, because your fever appeared to be magical in nature. I think it was related to the stone that you two had in your hands when your driver found you. He was smart enough to bring it, and I think we figured out what it is.” 

“I don’t care about the blasted stone!” I growled. “Why. Is. Caius. Not. Awake?” 

_Don’t terrorize them,_ Caius’s voice in my head admonished. _I’m not awake because I don’t want to be awake. My head hurts, and the light is making it worse. Ask them about the stone._

“Like Thom said,” Royston interjected, “we don’t know anything for sure. Your fevers broke last night, so it’s just been a waiting game. We’re not sure how the residual magic from the soul stone is affecting either one of you.”

“Soul stone?” 

“Yes!” Thom sounded more certain, almost excited. “At least, I’ve never seen one, but I’ve read about them, and it appears that what this is. Because you two touched it at the same time-“

I knew what he was going to say before I heard the words. “Our souls are bonded,” I finished. 

_Oh, goody!_ I could almost imagine Caius clapping his hands in glee. _Soul-bonding, doesn’t that sound_ exciting _? I guess I really should wake up so we can figure out what that entails, other than this thought-connection thing._

“Exactly,” Thom said. “Only, we’re not sure what exactly that means.”

I knew what it meant. It meant I was _never_ going to be rid of the boy. _Bastion_!


End file.
